The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 1 — Section 140

the doctrine of Christ. What could it mean? Our Lord met this inquiry in a very different wa.y from tbnt in which he might have done so. He might ho.ve sl\id, 11 Where, in tbe books of Moses, is fasting enjoined on the people of God ? On what day in all the year, excepting the Day of Atonement, is this practice prescribetl '/ Is it not a tradition of meu rather than a commandment of God?" But Jesus did not meet them thus. He said that his disciples did not fast because fasting on their part would be untinwly, unsuitable, and therefore unacceptable. 11 Can the children of the bridecharnber," etc.? "You would not have men fast when they have every reason for fee..~tiug? you would not have men show themselves miserable when there is every ground for gladness? you would not have my disciples do such violence to their spiritual nature? Yon do not a.et," Christ goes ou to say," with such unnaturalness and incongruity in other departments of life; you do not bring together thiugs that do not agree with one another; you do not put unwrought cloth on an old garment; you do not put new unfermented wine in old skins that will not stretch; if you did, you would pay the penalty in spoiled clothes and spilled wine. Why should you do anything that is unfitting and incongruous in the realm of religion? If you do, you will ba,·e a serious penalty to pay. No; let my disciples rejoice while they have occasion to be glad; the days will come soon enough when they will have a heart for grieving: then will they fast in those days." ll. AN Th7lICATION oF THE TRUE TONE OF CHRISTIAN SERVICE. The disciples were glad of heart becanse their Master was "with them." To be the close companions of Jesus Christ is reason enough for a prevailing spiritual joy. As his disciples, indeed, there ate certain special sources of sorrow-grief at the sin and misery of mankind, regret at our own slowness of growth and slackness of zeal, etc. But for us as his follo't\•ers is (1) the joy of faith; (2) the joy of fellowship; (3) the joy of service, the deli£ht of doing good, the blessedness of giving health and peace and hope to those in spiritual weakness and trouble; (4) the joy of hope, of immortal blessedness. Is it for us, with such a heritage in possession, and with such a prospect as this, to comport ourselves a.s if we were fatherless, friendless, portionless? Is it for us to go on our way homewards and heavenwards _as if we were being conveyed to prison or were going into exile? Not gloom but gladness, not dreariness but delight, should be the pre- vailing note of our Christian life. III. TII.E IMPORTANCE OF THE FITTING IN THE BPBEBE OF THE SACRED. we learn this, in the text, from the unwisdom of the unfitting in the sphere of the secular, "'No man putteth," etc.; if he does, he spoils his garment, and he spills his wine. So in the sphere of the spiritual: if we force the sorrowful spirit to assume the tone of the happy; or if we reverse this unnatural process, and compel the happy to affect to be sorrowful; or if we require the young to manifest piety in the forms that are suitable to the mature; or if we insist on those who have been trained in godly and virtuous he.bits showing the same form of repentance which we demand ~f th~ vicious and the gross ;-we may secure a result which gives us momenta1y sat1sfact10n, but we shall have a penalty to pay further on. The unnatural is always a mistake. God does not desire to be served in ways which are not fitted to the apirit which he has made, or a.re not appropriate to the circums.tances in which bis providence has placed us. :i,et there be no forcing in the sphere of the sacred. Do the fitting, the congruou~ th1~g, aw1 you will do the right and the acceptable thing. 11 Is any merry? let him sm_g psalms. Is any afflicted? let him pray." Is any filled with a sense of the value of t~1s life? let him give himself heartily to holy usefulness. Is any weary and worn with the strife e.nd burden of life? let him find cheer and comfort in anticipating the rest w1ich re:maineth for the people of God. Do not try to regulate your Rpiritual life by any caleuda.r; let it flow on in joy or sorrow, in active service or patient waiting as the hand of God is laid on the springs of your human spirit, and is directing the course of yuur earthly ltfe. Not the hard, cast-iron service of constraint, but the free, spontaneous service of the full and overflowing heart, is that for which our Lord is looking, and wr:.h which he is well plea.se<l.-C. Vera. 1-11.-Fi6her, of men. We left Jesus itinerating through Oo.lilee and preaching in the synagogues. But hie centre seems to have been the Lake of Ge~- nesarct, and especially Caperna•1m. 'l'he syriagogues have become too small for his 011. V. 1--1!1.) 'J'HE OOHI'EL ACCOHDINO TO ST. LL'frn. 111